Upcoming important dates:
What We're Saying on Facebook
We are recommending that voters apply for an absentee ballot.
Be prepared. Be informed.
July 25th 9.30am-noon, an interactive event by and for women. Registration required but attendance is free of charge. See link below.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment which granted many women in the US the right to vote. However, 1920 was not the end of the fight for suffrage for many, including women of color and Native American women. In fact, women of color were marginalized in the women’s suffrage movement that led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment. The objectives of the conference include:
Creating a dialogue between the past and present to inform our future.
Envisioning a path toward positive change.
Cultivating collaborative relationships for working toward positive change.
Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUod-mtrzktH9bt0JUODCIFnvCc5ZV-1Lfl
Happy birthday America!
As we celebrate today, let's contemplate the symbols representing our nation, how they came about and their continuing relevance.
How should we incorporate the voices of those who haven't been heard without denying our history?
Native tribal leaders are calling for the removal of Mount Rushmore
cnn.it
The chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is calling for the removal of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, arguing that it is carved in an area that is considered sacred land to Natives.Can I complete an absentee ballot request for someone else?
Yes! If they are a near relative or you are a legal guardian.
So you want to connect and understand the black experience. You've been searching for articles, books and documentaries.
How about reading black women writers? This is a curated list of the best 100 books written by black women from 1895 til today. What better way to see the world through different eyes?
Save the list and start to educate yourself! #BLM
The ZORA Canon: 100 Best Books by African American Women Authors
zora.medium.com
Celebrating more than 150 years of African American literature with 100 books written by African American womenWhen the new legislature changed the unemployment rules in 2013, NC became one of the worst states in which to file for unemployment. Then came the pandemic.
"Some state unemployment systems have long been designed to exclude applicants. “People are frustrated and complaining everywhere. But there are degrees of how well states are handling this based on their approach to the program,” said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank. “The states that are doing the worst at this have historically done a bad job of it.”
Among the worst, historically and at present, is North Carolina. At the end of 2019 — when the economy was humming and pandemics were the stuff of horror fiction — fewer than 1 in 10 jobless people in North Carolina received unemployment benefits. That’s the lowest rate in the country and well below the average of 26%.
The maximum number of weeks someone in the state can draw benefits is currently 12, compared with the national standard of 26 weeks. And those who receive benefits get less money than they used to: Between 2008 and 2019, the percentage of a worker’s wages replaced has fallen from 53% to 38%. North Carolina also ranks as the worst state for getting benefits to workers in a timely manner.
The overwhelming need for benefits today, and the delays that millions of Americans [ ] have in getting them, has set off a national awakening about the sorry state of unemployment insurance systems. That reckoning is acute in North Carolina, where jobless people will be particularly vulnerable when the $600 weekly unemployment payments from the federal CARES Act expire at the end of July.
Before the pandemic, the state averaged 3,000 claims a week, according to the DES. In the first six weeks of the pandemic, its system was flooded with an average of 136,000 claims a week. “Despite those challenges, if there are no issues with a filed claim, a person usually receives their first payment within 14 days of filing,” said David Rhoades, spokesman for the DES. In the same statement, he also noted that “in the last five years, DES lost 20%, or $10 million, of its administrative funding.”
Wake up, NC! These folks need their unemployment payments.
How North Carolina Transformed Itself Into the Worst State to Be Unemployed
www.propublica.org
Across the country, unemployment systems are collapsing under an unprecedented number of claims. But some state systems, like North Carolina’s, have long made it harder to receive unemployment benefits.